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Non-grain” of cultivated land refers to the planting conversion from food crops into cash crops or others. The disorderly expands of “non-grain” cultivated land can greatly threat to regional food security. It is a high demand to scientifically measure the degree and spatial distribution pattern of cropland “non-grain”. In this study, the spatial differentiation characteristics of cropland “non-grain” were identified to reasonably control the influencing factors in the mountain counties using spatial correlation analysis. The land use data was first collected from the Xinfeng County of Jiangxi Province in China, according to the Third National Land Survey. The correlation factors and formation mechanism were then revealed for the spatial pattern of cultivated land “non-grain” using the correlation analysis and spatial econometric model.The research results showed that: 1) The “non-grain” rate of cultivated land was 30.28% in the study area, of which the “non-grain” area of plantation structure and the “non-grain” area of agricultural industry structure were 6 601.94 and 7 679.98 hm², with “non-grain” rates of 13.84% and 16.44% respectively. There was outstanding spatial heterogeneity for the distribution of cropland “non-grain” in different topographic areas. Specifically, the alpine hilly areas mainly showed the “non-grain” of agricultural industry structure, whereas, the low mountain hilly areas showed the “non-grain” of cultivated land cultivation structure. 2) There was the agglomerative pattern for the spatial distribution of cultivated land “non-grain”. The “non-grain” of planting structure was highly agglomerative in the central low hill and hill areas, whereas, the “non-grain” of agricultural industry structure was highly agglomerative in the eastern and northwestern high mountain and hill areas. 3) Some factors (such as the average plot size, the distance to water sources, and the density of rural road networks) posed positive effects on the “non-grain” production. The “non-food” production also received the inhibiting effects from the decision making on the permanent protection of basic farmland and grain production functional zones. 4) Since there was a spatial diffusion effect of the “non-grain” production, it is necessary to clarify the use and cultivation status of transferred cultivated land, in order to avoid the destruction of the cultivated layer of cultivated land. According to the natural resource conditions and industrial development, the control strategies of the “non-grain” production were proposed, in terms of region and category. 1) One strategy was to differentiate between the planting structure “non-food” and agricultural industry structure “non-grain”. There was a small impact of planting structure “non-grain” on the production capacity of cultivated land. By contrast, the large impact was found to be strictly prohibited in the agricultural industry structure “non-grain” on the production capacity of cultivated land. 2) High mountain areas were strengthen by the supervision of agro-industrial structure “non-grain”, whereas, the low hill areas were for the planting structure “non-grain”. 3) The “non-grain” production of agricultural industry structure can be curbed to increase the construction of farmland infrastructure in the high mountainous and hilly areas, particularly for the better farming conditions. 4) Much attention should be paid to those land types that converted from growing food crops to others. The potential cultivated land resources should be remediated in the stages to restore the cultivated land. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sand flat is an important part of agriculture in the Pearl River Delta, and it is also the land use mode with the most local characteristics of Guangdong. This paper takes the agricultural cultural heritage of Nansha sand flat as an example to study how to stimulate the new vitality of traditional cultural heritage. Nansha, located at the Pearl River Port, is a model of sand flat area in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Its formation is a history of continuous cultivation and expansion of sand flat. In the long history of reclamation of sand flat, Nansha people have created sand flat agricultural cultural heritage with rich connotation and unique characteristics. However, with the increasing industrialization and urbanization in recent years, the traditional sand flat farming culture is facing the disappearing crisis, so it is urgent to strengthen the inheritance and protection. For the inheritance and protection of agricultural cultural heritage in sand flat, Nansha, the primary core task is to activate the utilization. To adhere to the basic principle of "protection through utilization and utilization through protection", we can take measures such as strengthening publicity and education, promoting the application of sand flat agricultural heritage, strengthening government leadership and planning guidance, as well as advancing the integrated development of sand flat agriculture, culture and tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis has the intention to highlight the territorial differentiation of the agricultural development's vulnerabilities in the agricultural areas from Argeș County. Thereby a determinant and eliminatory factor in agriculture is given by the average slopes greater than 20% and altitudes greater than 700 m. By consequences, 16 villages have been excluded. The study has emphasized an increasing of territorial vulnerabilities, which tend to intensify in the rural areas. The analysis of the agricultural development's growth is based on four main criteria: the use of agricultural land; the fragmentation of agricultural land; the viability of agricultural companies and the types of agricultural exploitation. Therefore, through the variety of the indicators that have been used, the analysis offers an image of the spatial layout of the agricultural development in the 95 settlements under discussion. Moreover, the degree of development for an industrial branch is observed through this problem, so common in the emerging economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research advances the hypothesis that natural land productivity in the past, and its effect on the desirable level of cooperation in the agricultural sector, had a persistent effect on the evolution of social capital, the process of industrialization and comparative economic development across the globe. Exploiting exogenous sources of variations in land productivity across (a) countries; (b) individuals within a country, (c) migrants of different ancestry within a country, and (d) individuals residing in regions within a country, the research establishes that lower level of land productivity in the past is associated with more intense cooperation and higher levels of contemporary social capital and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing land utilization through diverse forms of human activities, such as agriculture, forestry, urban growth, and industrial development, has led to negative impacts on the water quality of rivers. To find out how catchment attributes, such as land use, hydrologic soil groups, and lithology, can affect water quality variables (Ca, Mg, Na, Cl, HCO, pH, TDS, EC, SAR), a spatio-statistical approach was applied to 23 catchments in southern basins of the Caspian Sea. All input data layers (digital maps of land use, soil, and lithology) were prepared using geographic information system (GIS) and spatial analysis. Relationships between water quality variables and catchment attributes were then examined by Spearman rank correlation tests and multiple linear regression. Stepwise approach-based multiple linear regressions were developed to examine the relationship between catchment attributes and water quality variables. The areas (%) of marl, tuff, or diorite, as well as those of good-quality rangeland and bare land had negative effects on all water quality variables, while those of basalt, forest land cover were found to contribute to improved river water quality. Moreover, lithological variables showed the greatest most potential for predicting the mean concentration values of water quality variables, and noting that measure of EC and TDS have inversely associated with area (%) of urban land use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land policy is crucial to Vietnam’s socioeconomic development. Yet, land policy in Vietnam often is short-sighted, resulting in inequities and a form of commons tragedy. In this essay, the author reviews the evolving land policy in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, pointing out inconsistencies and shortcomings. The essay concludes with recommendations to improve policy and the long-term well-being of Vietnam and its people; specifically, several events should occur for Vietnam to achieve middle-income status by 2020, as the government of Vietnam intends. Rapid industrialization and modernization should continue; land currently used for agriculture (particularly rice) need to be converted to industrial parks; residential areas, and infrastructure; and all land should be used in ways that yields the highest social returns. Public investment should help boost agricultural (and land) productivity; and environmental (and land) management should ensure that the institutions and incentives support environmental sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents abstracts on topics related to history and planning including attitudes towards menstruation in Elizabethan England, sexual fantasy in modern America, and feminism.

The industrialization of agriculture in western societies has often led to either intensified use or abandonment of farmland and open pastures, but experimental evidence on how the dynamics of farmed ecosystems affect space use by large herbivores is limited. We experimentally manipulated farmland patches with cutting and (early summer) low- and high-intensity domestic sheep Ovis aries grazing according to traditional use in north Norway. After treatments, grazing reindeer Rangifer tarandus were exposed to the pastures the subsequent fall (2 months after treatments) and spring (11 months after treatments) as they typically do on their migratory route between summer and winter ranges. The experiment was conducted over 2 subsequent years. We predicted that sheep grazing on farmland during early summer may affect the critical fall and spring range conditions for reindeer either through negative (delayed competition) or positive (grazing facilitation) interactions. We found that the most marked effect of land use on the grazing pattern of reindeer was between no use (the control treatment) and all the other management options involving active land use. The grazing reindeer avoided the pastures no longer in use likely due to senescent plant material. There was a tendency that the lower intensity sheep grazing patches attracted more reindeer than the highest intensity use. These results highlight not only the general principle that large-scale agricultural changes may affect large herbivores in natural ecosystems, but they also increase our understanding of grazing facilitation as a mechanism in large herbivore assemblages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For many years, tropical and subtropical forests have been deforested for agriculture, grazing, and timber extraction. Nevertheless in the last decade, several publications have suggested that some regions of Latin America are showing a process of forest transition. Forest transition theory predicts that industrialization and urbanization will lead to the abandonment of marginal agriculture lands and the recovery of natural systems such as forests. However, there are many ecological, economic, and social factors that could act as barriers to ecosystem recovery. To evaluate this hypothesis, we analyzed the socioeconomic and land-use changes during the last 30 years at the provincial and departmental level in the province of Misiones, Argentina. We described the changes in the distribution of urban and rural populations based on national population censuses from 1970, 1980, 1991, and 2001. Land-use change was based on a supervised analysis of four mosaics of Landsat Multispectral Scanner and Thematic Mapper satellite images from 1973, 1979, 1987/1989, and 2006. Although the change in the rural population varied greatly among the departments, there has been a dramatic increase in the urban population at the provincial level. The major land-use changes between 1973 and 2006 were an increase in monospecific plantations of mainly Pinus and Eucalyptus of 2702 km2 and a loss of 4689 km2 of natural forest. Misiones possesses the largest remnant of continuous Atlantic Forest, which is famous for its high level of biodiversity and endemism, but much of this forest now comprises monospecific plantations. Although demographic changes in Misiones are similar to those that have occurred other regions (i.e., rural-urban migration), and the increase in forest plantations helps to maintain forest cover, this cover has much lower ecological value than that of natural forest. To ensure the conservation of the high-diversity Atlantic Forest in Misiones requires a better effort to understand the interactions among the diverse factors that affect land-use patterns in this region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts of articles related to state and national planning are presented which include "Analysis of Rail Transit Project Selection Bias With an Incentive Approach," by Wenling Chen, "Urban History for Planners," by Carl Abbott and "Rebuilding the Modern City After Modernism in Toronto and Berlin," by Douglas Young.

The article presents abstracts of planning. They include "The Fall and Rise of the Local Community: A Comparative and Historical Perspective," by Hellmut Wollman, "The Compact Versus the Dispersed City: History of Planning Ideas on Sofia's Urban Form," by Sonia Hirt, and "A Paradigm for Practice," by Ronald D. Brunner.

The rapid industrialization and urbanization of an area require quick preparation of actual land use/land cover (LU/LC) maps in order to detect and avoid overuse and damage of the landscape beyond sustainable development limits. Remote sensing technology fits well for long-term monitoring and assessment of such effects. The aim of this study was to analyze LU/LC changes between 1980 and 1999 in Samsun, Turkey, using satellite images. Three Landsat images from 1980, 1987 and 1999 were used to determine changes. A post classification technique was used based on a hybrid classification approach (unsupervised and supervised). Images were classified into six LU/LC types; urban, agriculture, dense forest, open forest-hazelnut, barren land and water area. It is found that significant changes in land cover occurred over the study period. The results showed an increase in urban, open forest/hazelnut, barren land and water area and a decrease in agriculture and dense forest in between 1980 and 1999. In this period, urban land increased from 0.77% to 2.47% of the total area, primarily due to conversions from agricultural land and forest to a lesser degree. While the area of dense forest decreased from 41.09% to 29.64% of the total area, the area of open forest and hazelnut increased from 6.73% to 11.88%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of several studies on environment and planning. "Explaining the Growth of British Multiple Retailing During the Golden Age," by Carlo Morelli; "Cities in the Shade: Urban Geography and the Uses of Noir," by Matthew Farish; "Geographers and the Tennessee Valley Authority," by Ronald Reed Boyce.

The article presents a discussion of rural population research in relation to land utilization in the United States. It is evident form previous studies that emphasis should be placed on development of rural areas and farm elements in order to build a strong economy, but it has yet not been decided that what should be the policy of rural-urban balance in the development. According to dominant prevailing policy, new civilization would be built upon an urban manufacturing substratum. Farming would be secondary to the industry. But, in this case, new world order would discover a decline in population. Some researchers suggest to go more fully in the direction of merging agriculture and industry in such a fashion that there would be no farmer and no industrialists, everyone would be a factory-farmer. But it would result in a more unbalanced economy. So there should be a balance between farming and manufacturing to develop a securely stable civilization. Rural sociologist can also play an important role in the development of rural population. He can work for human welfare, social justice and social progress.